Her Spirit Cracked the Sky

Her Spirit Cracked the Sky by solarminds

 

Her Spirit Cracked the Sky is “…epic…awe inspiring… It leads the listener on a journey through an array of soundscapes, and there’s not only considerable atmosphere being conjured here, but the music also has a very visual aspect. You feel as if you’re being transported through different scenes, and at times, are creeping cautiously and peering around corners, while at others, staring out from a high plateau overlooking immense vistas that stretch further than the eye can see…[The Lie is] a delicate, tender experience that grows in emotional intensity and pulls at the gut with its starkness, its rawness.” – Aural Aggravation 1.16.21

For this project, Chris enlisted the help of his oldest friend and long time sonic explorer, Douglas Plaisance, who expertly and creatively engineered the recordings at The House in Ozark, AL, and legendary drummer, Kevin Carnes (Beatnigs, Broun Fellinis, Voodoo Dolly) who recorded his drums remotely. The album was artfully mastered by Grammy Award winning engineer, Alan Douches, at West West Side Music.

 

This 42 minute album, inspired by the passing of Chris’ mom, is available on limited edition 180gram cherry and silver vinyl. Each record features individualized hand drawn art by Chris.
Order yours before we run out (only 42 copies in this series). $42 plus shipping.

 

 

 

 

I started writing the material for this album shortly after my mom died on December 6th, 2018. There was a really powerful thunderstorm that evening in San Diego where she passed. I think the local news said there hadn’t been that many lightning strikes in such a short period of time in decades. It poured rain and caused lots of flooding around the county, too, and the album title refers to that thunderstorm.

The day before we started recording, I spread my mom’s ashes around the house. The recording sessions were intense, both emotionally and physically. We battled the heat and humidity, helicopter sounds from the nearby-ish army base, technical glitches, and did I say the heat?

 

The songs are called, The Gift, The Lie, & The Visit.

 

The Gift consists of four sections that are woven into a whole, and is 20 minutes long, taking up the first side of the record. The title specifically refers to the gift I believe my mom gave me by waiting for me to get down to San Diego to say goodbye before she died. I got the call on that Tuesday morning, was on a flight the next day, spent that night in her hospital room, and she passed the next afternoon. The song is also about the ups and downs and struggles she had during her 6 years of on and off cancer battles, the sounds and general chaos of being in the hospital environment, and finally, her spirit leaving her body and ascending, powerfully and with purpose, into the heavens. The song ends with thunderstorm sounds.

 

The Lie opens up the second side of the record with the thunderstorm still going, and the actual bulk of the song takes a little bit to appear. I wanted to create the feel of just sitting out on the back porch, with the rain hitting the tin roof and coming down off the house, and the thunder in the distance, and then listening to someone play a song. I wanted it to feel intimate, and like the listener is there at the house with me and the rain and maybe my mom. I play my 12 stringed, acoustic guitar, and sing. The song is mostly about the actual event of her passing, and how maybe you have to tell people that it’s okay for them to move on even when you don’t want to. It’s about the unfathomable loss, and raw grief. The rain clears up a little and seamlessly transitions to the next song.

The Visit refers to an experience I had a couple weeks after my mom passed away. It was late at night, and it was very odd, but I felt my mom’s presence with me. I don’t even know if that is something I can feel, but in that moment, that’s what I felt. I felt her presence or spirit or whatever, and it felt like amber light. Sonically, the song has electric guitar, percussion, and nature sounds, all recorded at the Alabama house, and more drumming by Kevin Carnes recorded in his space.